Advice From a Senior: Nicole

Hello, I’m Nicole Vickers and I have a Latin assignment due in 3 hours, so naturally I’m writing a post due next month.

Anyway, I think everyone has some wisdom to share, but I sometimes don’t like to see myself as an authority. That’s because I think everyone should figure out what they want to do and do it. People should be okay with doing things that their friends aren’t doing, and be willing to make new friends, or better yet, become comfortable with just being alone with themselves. You know that adage “boy/girlfriends come and go, but good friends last forever”? Well it’s not exactly true. You can have a friend, and you can remain close literally until you die, but when it comes down to it, you have to be able to count on yourself.

As a person who suffers from and is being treated for OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, I especially know how difficult it can be to be inside your own mind sometimes. But a day is going to come when you’re going to have to depend on yourself, and you can’t crumble at the thought of being alone.

You have to be willing to cut people out when they hurt you more than they support you. You have to be able to find your way out of a sticky situation on your own if you have to. You have to be able to listen to an opinion from someone you care about, and respectfully say “I disagree,” when you don’t agree. You have to be able to admit that maybe you think Snapchat streaks are dumb and stop doing them, or be able to say “I love Snapchat streaks,” and keep them up with acquaintances even after the crowd rejects them. You have to be able to listen to someone talk about an event that you wish you were invited to and not take it personally.

There’s a school of psychological thought that basically says that a person’s unhappiness is the distance from who they want to be and who they are. I see so many people in high school who spend all their time wishing that they were more accepted, or that they had more friends. But if you have to change yourself, or your values to get those friends, then when you’re alone, you’ll feel empty. Because you spent all your time fitting yourself to be likable, and when you’re alone, with the person who you can never ever escape, the demographic you made yourself to please is gone, and you feel that distance.